Twisha Sharma Case: What Happened, Who Is Accused, and Where It Stands Now
A former model found dead within five months of marriage — and a case that has shaken Madhya Pradesh's legal establishment.
Compiled from live news data by NewzAI · Updated June 2, 2026
Five Months of Marriage, Then Found Dead
On the evening of May 12, 2026, Twisha Sharma — a 33-year-old former model and actor — was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal's Katara Hills area. She had been married for barely five months. What followed has become one of India's most closely watched alleged dowry death cases of 2026: a husband who absconded for 10 days, a retired-judge mother-in-law accused of influencing the probe, 46 contested phone calls, CCTV footage with disputed timestamps, and a Supreme Court-level legal battle over who gets to investigate.
By June 2, the case has moved well beyond a local police matter. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance. The CBI has taken over the investigation and re-registered the FIR. A second autopsy by AIIMS Delhi has been completed and Twisha cremated. Both her husband Samarth Singh and her mother-in-law — retired judge Giribala Singh — are now in CBI custody, and investigators have recreated the crime scene with a weighted dummy to test the family's account. Read on NewzAI →
Image credit: News18
Who Was Twisha Sharma?
Twisha Sharma was a 33-year-old former model and actor who met Samarth Singh through a dating app in 2024. Samarth is a lawyer by profession — and the son of Giribala Singh, a retired judge. The couple married in December 2025.
Friends who knew her well say the change was visible within months. "She remained very quiet. After two to three months of marriage, she was under immense pressure from her in-laws," friends Navratan, Prerna, and Purshottam told NDTV. WhatsApp messages between Twisha and her mother, Rekha Sharma, allegedly showed that she felt "trapped" in the marriage. Her family says her health deteriorated markedly after she moved to Bhopal. Read on NewzAI →
The Full Case Timeline
From their first meeting to Samarth's arrest, here is every major development in chronological order.
📅 Case Timeline
The Evidence Under Scrutiny
Three pieces of evidence sit at the centre of the dispute — and all three are contested.
The CCTV footage from the marital home shows Twisha walking toward the terrace, followed nearly an hour later by family members bringing her downstairs and attempting CPR. That gap has become a focal point for investigators. Giribala Singh informed court that eight CCTV cameras at the residence had a timestamp discrepancy of "two days, two hours and 20 minutes" due to improper maintenance — a claim Twisha's family disputes, arguing the timing errors were introduced deliberately. Read on NewzAI →
The 46 calls made by Giribala Singh to judges, IAS and IPS officers, doctors, advocates, and CCTV technicians between May 12 and May 14 have drawn significant scrutiny. The family says calls to CCTV technicians — placed immediately after the death, when electronic evidence was most critical — are particularly troubling. Giribala denied influencing anyone, telling reporters: "People were calling only to offer condolences. Whatever is being shown in the media is wrong." She said she contacted CCTV operators to understand "what exactly happened" inside the house.
The first post-mortem, conducted at AIIMS Bhopal, cited hanging as the cause of death. Twisha's family alleged lapses in the examination, pointing to injury marks they say were not adequately explained. The Madhya Pradesh High Court agreed sufficient questions existed and granted permission for a second autopsy — to be conducted by specialists from AIIMS Delhi. Read on NewzAI →
Image credit: News18
What Friends and Family Say
Multiple friends of Twisha have come forward with accounts of what her marriage looked like from the outside. Friends Navratan, Prerna, and Purshottam alleged Samarth routinely humiliated her in social settings. "He used to say she does not know anything, what has she studied, she does not know anything, nor does she do anything. He always humiliated her during gatherings with friends," they told NDTV. They said he called her "gawar" — a derogatory term for someone uneducated or uncultured.
Friends also alleged that after Twisha underwent an abortion following an unplanned pregnancy, her in-laws repeatedly questioned her about it. According to a close friend, Prachi, Twisha maintained two phones — one for work and one personal. After Twisha's death, her in-laws allegedly tried to prevent her family from accessing the personal device. Read on NewzAI →
Twisha's brother, Major Harshit Sharma, said it was "unfathomable" how anyone could be so cruel, referring to remarks Giribala Singh had made about his sister in public statements. The National Commission for Women took suo motu cognisance of the case, with NCW Chairperson Vijaya Kishore Rahatkar criticising what she called the "character assassination" of Twisha Sharma.
Samarth Singh's lawyer, Mrigendra Singh, presented a starkly different account. He told NDTV his client was "broken after his wife's death" and described the day's events as entirely ordinary: a salon visit, a walk, dinner, and then Twisha going upstairs saying she needed space. He maintained Samarth was not hiding — only exercising his legal right to seek anticipatory bail before surrendering.
The Legal Reckoning
The charges against Samarth Singh and Giribala Singh include dowry death, cruelty, and common intention under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Dowry Prohibition Act — both serious, non-bailable offences.
Samarth remained absconding for 10 days after Twisha's death, prompting police to issue a Look Out Circular and announce a cash reward of Rs 30,000 for information leading to his arrest. The Bar Council of India took the unusual step of suspending him from legal practice with immediate effect during the pendency of the case. On May 22, after withdrawing his anticipatory bail application, he surrendered at a court in Jabalpur and was taken into custody by Bhopal Police. Read on NewzAI →
Giribala Singh, the retired judge, obtained anticipatory bail from a sessions court and has not been taken into custody. The MP government's recommendation for a CBI probe — granting consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act — represents a significant escalation. Twisha's uncle, Lokesh Sharma, welcomed the move as "a step towards justice," while adding it should have come sooner. Read on NewzAI →
The Supreme Court Steps In
On May 23, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of Twisha's death — elevating it from a state criminal probe to a matter of national judicial scrutiny. The court said it had stepped in because of a "narrative" suggesting the judiciary or local authorities were obstructing a fair investigation because the accused mother-in-law is a former district judge. Read on NewzAI →
At a May 25 hearing, a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant (with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi) backed a "fair and independent" CBI probe and restrained both the victim's and the accused's families from making public statements, urging journalists not to broadcast potential witnesses to avoid prejudicing the case. Appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta made an emotional remark that became the line most associated with the case: "It is better to have a divorced daughter than a dead one." Read on NewzAI →
A day earlier, on May 24, the court-ordered second autopsy was carried out by a four-member AIIMS Delhi panel at AIIMS Bhopal — performed on a body that had lain in the mortuary for 12 days. Twisha was cremated the same day at Bhopal's Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat, where her brother, Major Harshit Sharma, lit the pyre and her mother, Rekha Sharma, collapsed. The findings of that autopsy are still awaited.
The CBI Takes Over — And a Fresh Dowry Allegation
On May 25, a CBI Special Crime unit reached Bhopal and took over the case from the Special Investigation Team, re-registering the FIR under Sections 80(2), 85 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, naming both Samarth and Giribala Singh as accused. Read on NewzAI →
According to the FIR, dated May 25, Giribala Singh allegedly demanded Rs 2 lakh during the "vidai" ceremony following the December 9, 2025 marriage — an amount the family says was paid on her insistence. The complaint alleges Twisha faced mental and physical harassment over dowry after the wedding. Read on NewzAI →
Before the handover, Samarth Singh had told the SIT that Twisha had been "distressed" following an abortion and reiterated a claim that he had given her Rs 7 lakh. Investigators said he "repeatedly attempted to mislead" them about his 10 days in hiding. The SIT seized his laptop, phone, passport and Aadhaar card. Read on NewzAI →
Image credit: Hindustan Times
Giribala Singh Arrested
On May 27, the Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed the anticipatory bail that a Bhopal sessions court had granted Giribala Singh hours after the FIR was filed. In a 17-page order, vacation judge Devnarayan Mishra cited the consistent allegations, the heinous nature of the offence, her non-cooperation with the probe, and the trial court's failure to weigh the evidence — including antemortem injuries on Twisha's body. Read on NewzAI →
A day later, on May 28, the CBI arrested Giribala Singh after more than six hours of questioning at her Katara Hills residence, with reporters swarming the lane as she was driven away. On May 29, a Bhopal court remanded both the retired judge and her son to five-day CBI custody until June 2. Read on NewzAI →
Inside the Crime-Scene Recreation
On June 1, around a dozen CBI officials — accompanied by forensic and crime-scene experts — brought Samarth and Giribala back to the Katara Hills home for a crime-scene recreation that lasted nearly three hours. Videos from the site showed officials using a weighted dummy, reported at roughly Twisha's body weight, to test the accused's account of her death. Read on NewzAI →
Samarth had told interrogators he brought Twisha down from the noose — a gymnastic belt allegedly used as a ligature — while Giribala untied the knot around her neck. The CBI tested whether a man of Samarth's build could single-handedly lower a 70 kg body (Twisha's post-mortem weight), checked whether the belt could bear that load, and probed how the antemortem injuries listed in the first post-mortem — to the ring finger, forearm, hand and shoulder, plus an alleged scalp injury — might have occurred. Officials said they were building a minute-by-minute timeline and would match the two accounts for discrepancies. Read on NewzAI →
Image credit: News18
Twisha's family welcomed the "scientific probe." Her father, Navnidhi Sharma, told CNN-News18: "We can't comment much on the evidence because of the Supreme Court order, but we are hopeful of justice and have full faith in CBI." With the five-day custody ending, the two accused were due to be produced in court on June 2, where the agency was expected to seek fresh remand.
What to Watch Next
Several threads remain open and will determine whether the case produces accountability:
- The second autopsy report from the AIIMS Delhi panel is still awaited. Its findings on whether the injuries are consistent with hanging — or point to something else — will be decisive for whether the case proceeds as suicide abetment, dowry death, or homicide.
- Fresh CBI custody: With the first five-day remand of Samarth and Giribala ending June 2, whether the court grants the agency further custody for joint interrogation will shape the next phase of the probe.
- The recreation findings: The CBI will match Samarth's and Giribala's enacted accounts against their earlier statements, looking for discrepancies in how Twisha was brought down and how her injuries occurred.
- The escape trail: Investigators are now probing who assisted Samarth during the days he was untraceable — and whether the 46 contested phone calls amounted to obstruction of justice.
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CBI recreates the crime scene with a dummy; family welcomes "scientific probe" →
MP High Court quashes Giribala Singh's anticipatory bail →
"Better to have a divorced daughter than a dead one": SG Mehta in the Supreme Court →